Senior Oration (English): Najwa Kaawach

Your Majesties, faculty, parents and students,

When I sat down to write these words, I found myself thinking about the movie Click, where the protagonist played by Adam Sandler had access to a remote control that allowed him to pause, rewind and fast forward his life. I began to imagine what if we could do such a thing right now? What would we remember? How would we feel? What glimpse would we be given about our futures? Borrowing the idea from the movie, I will now use my pretend remote control to help us reflect on our experience at King’s and, hopefully in the process, help find an easier way to say this goodbye.

Let’s start our journey by…pausing.

Take a deep breath and look at where we are now. As high school seniors, we are standing on the bridge of the in between. Behind lies the shadow of our adolescence – in front emerges the uncertainty of adulthood. Let’s savor this moment as we straddle these two very different worlds. Let’s smile at our classmates sitting around us – the people with whom we made our high school memories. Let’s acknowledge the students who still have a while to go but let’s wish them luck and encourage them to make the most out of their time at King’s. Now, let’s turn our attention to our parents whose faces are filled with pride and joy because they are finally seeing their children become adults. Finally, let’s acknowledge our teachers with thoughts of gratitude for all they have done for us on this journey. Take in all of your surroundings, Class of 2014, and remember this moment as it is and hold it forever in your heart.

Now let’s rewind.

We are seated in the center of the Auditorium hearing Ms. Julianne shout “Seniors!” while we all enthusiastically clap to start school meeting. Picture each other sitting on the couches in the senior lounge during our free periods taking snap chats of each other and counting down the days until graduation. Recall the day we received our senior jackets and how glorious we felt because it really brought us together as a class. Reminisce about the hard work and struggle of learning things that really stretched us, but smile because we know it was worth it. Remember the feeling of restlessness that overtook us during the recent weeks when we knew this day was close upon us, but how we found the little push required to reach the end.

And let’s fast forward.

We are off to college, but wherever we are going, we are ready to explore. We make new friends, but stay in touch with old ones. We grow passionate in areas that today we may know nothing about. Each one of us is finding our own path and cutting our own trail. Rund suddenly appears in an episode of Grey’s Anatomy. Nouf is a cash money millionaire and Ward published a book of poetry that we all love to read. The future is ripe with opportunities and we cease each one because we remember this is what King’s Academy taught us to do.

Now hit play.

Take a deep breath and let’s move forward. In a few moments, the final parts of this ceremony will conclude and we will soon no longer be high school students. We knew this moment would eventually reach us so let’s move forward together and vow to take King’s Academy and its values along with us wherever we go. Let’s show the world who we are with the force of the loudest roar of the mightiest lion. So, it’s time for me to say, in the most poignant of ways, “Go, Lions.” (pause) “Go!”